STEPHEN  Bo  WEEKS 

CLASS  OF  1886:  PHD  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY 


OF  THE 
fOFNdJM 

TIE  WEEKS  COLILECTKDN 


UK3 
l3ii7M 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NX.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00036720824 


This  book  must  not 
be  token  from  the 
Library  building. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/addressbeforealuOOmaso 


ADDRESS 


BEFORE    THE 


ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION 


UNIVERSITY   OF   NORTH   CAROLINA, 


DELIVERED  IN  GERARD  HALL,  JUNE  2,  1847, 


(tHF,  evening  preceding  commencement  DAT,) 


HON.  JOHN  Y.  MASON,  L.  L.  D. 


WASHINGTON: 

FRINTED    BY  J.    AND  G.S.  GIDEON. 
1847. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  University  of  North  Carohna,  held 
in  Gerard  Hall  on  the  evening  of  the  2nd  June,  1847,  it  was  unanimously  resolved,  on 
motion  of  the  President  of  the  University,  immediately  after  the  delivery  of  the  an- 
nual address  by  the  Hon.  John  Y.  Mason  : 

"That  the  thanks  of  the  Alumni  Association  be  presented  to  Secretary  Mason,  and 
that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  of  his  address  for  publication." 

His  Excellency  Gov.  Graham,  the  Rev.  Prof.  Green,  and  the  Hon.  Judge  Battle 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  carry  this  resolution  into  effect. 

Chapel  Hill,  June  3d,  1847. 
Sir  :  The  undersigned  have  been  appointed  a  committee  to  tender  to  you  the  grate- 
ful acknowledgments  of  the  Alumni   Association  of  this  University  for  the  very 
able,  interesting,  and  instructive  address  which  you  delivered  in  Gerard  Hall  last 
evening,  and  to  request  a  copy  for  publication. 

With  the  highest  regard,  we  are,  yours,  &c., 

WILL.  A.  GRAHAM, 
WILL.  M.  GREEN, 
WILL.  H.  BATTLE. 
To  the  Hon.  John  Y.  Mason,  present. 


Chapel  Hill,  June  3d,  1847. 
Gentlemen  :  I  have  received  your  esteemed  favor,  in  which,  as  a  committee,  you 
tender  to  me  the  acknowledgments  of  the  Alumni  Association  for  the  address  which 
I  had  the  honor  to  deliver  in  Gerard  Hall  last  evening.  Happy  in  having  met  the 
wishes  of  the  Association,  and  deferring  to  their  judgment  of  the  merits  of  a  pro- 
duction on  which  you  have  kindly  expressed  so  favorable  an  opinion,  I  will  comply 
with  your  request,  and  transmit  to  you  a  copy  of  the  address  so  soon  as  I  can  pre- 
pare the  manuscript  for  publication. 

With  the  highest  respect  and  regard, 

Your  obd't  servant  and  friend, 

J.  Y.  MASON. 
Messrs.  Wm.  A.  Graham, 
Will.  M.  Green, 
Will    H.  Battle. 

Chapel  Hill. 


ADDRESS. 


Mr.  President,  and  gentlemen  of  the  association: 

In  appearing  before  you  to-day,  while  I  regret  that  your  invita- 
tion had  not  found  one  possessed  of  more  leisure  than  I  have  had 
in  which  to  meet  its  requirements,  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity 
which  has  thus  been  afforded  me,  to  testify  my  continued  interest 
in  my  Alma  Mater,  and  my  sincere  regard  for  those  great  purpo- 
ses of  science  and  of  virtue  which  it  is  the  fortunate  office  of  an 
American  University  to  promote. 

After  intervals  of  absence — some  of  them  embracing  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century — we  visit  again,  mindful  yet  of  our  literary 
brotherhood,  the  cherished  scenes  of  our  youthful  studies,  and  re- 
new for  a  few  brief  hours,  amid  the  fragrant  memorials  of  Chapel 
Hill,  our  ancient  companionship  of  letters,  and  our  old  associations 
of  classic  life.  Turning  aside  from  our  accustomed  pursuits,  we 
exchange  the  greetings  of  friendship  in  halls  long  sacred  to  religion 
and  to  truth;  and  before  the  altars  of  our  early  worship,  we  gather 
fresh  motives  of  gratitude  to  the  venerable  Institution  whose  vir- 
tues they  commemorate.  We  surrender  ourselves  to  the  mild  in- 
fluences of  the  day  and  the  occasion.  We  forget  the  discords  of 
professional  strife:  the  hard  competitions  of  business;  the  feverish 
thirst  for  fame:  and  hushing  all  the  thousand  voices  of  party  zeal, 
we  bow  ourselves  in  unresisting  submission  to  the  divinity  of  the. 
place. 

In  such  influences  we  find  our  best  preparation  for  the  Anniver- 
sary which  we  celebrate.  It  is  a  festival  less  of  the  head  than  of 
the  heart.     It  has  more  concern  with  generous  impulses  and  warm 


alTections,  than  wiili  the  cold  deductions  of  reason,  or  the  dry  spe- 
culations of  metaphysics.  It  is  wisely  intended,  not  so  much  for 
the  exhibition  of  lioarded  knowledge  and  the  discussions  of  abstruse 
thought,  as  for  the  promotion  of  kind  feeling,  the  strengthening  of 
good  resolves,  the  awakening  and  quickening  of  a  spirit  of  improve- 
ment in  ourselves  and  in  others.  It  brings  together,  from  remote 
places  and  from  various  paths,  those  whose  only  memories  in  com- 
mon cluster  around  this  seat  of  learning;  and  it  thus  perpetuates 
attachments  which  might  otiierwise  lie  buried  for  ever  in  the  dust 
of  years.  In  this  view  of  its  character,  it  claims  the  rewards  of 
patriotism,  no  less  than  the  regards  of  friendship;  and  strengthens 
our  union  as  citizens,  by  reviving  our  connection  as  students.  The 
bonds  which  hold  together  our  extended  confederacy  of  States,  are 
not  those  alone  which  are  to  be  read  in  written  constitutions  and 
gathered  from  the  enactments  of  legal  codes;  but  those,  rather, 
which  are  found  in  the  interchange  of  social  kindness;  in  the  at- 
tractions of  literary  intercourse;  and  in  the  manifold  associations 
which  spring  from  the  communions  of  religion  and  the  pursuits  of 
business.  Every  institution,  therefore,  which,  like  our  own  Soci- 
ety, gathers  its  members  at  frequent  periods  from  distant  sections 
and  different  States,  forms  a  new  link  in  that  most  important  chain 
of  causes,  upon  which  we  must  chiefly  rely,  under  Providence,  for 
the  support  and  perpetuity  of  our  republican  system. 

In  behalf  of  that  system,  how  numerous  and  powerful  are  the 
motives  which  appeal  to  us  on  an  anniversary  like  this.  The 
tranquility  of  these  academic  walks,  the  circumstances,  all  of  them, 
under  which  we  assemble,  speak  to  us  of  a  beneficent  Government 
and  a  prospered  country.  The  experience,  too,  of  every  one  of  us 
enforces  the  same  lesson  with  the  strength  and  vividness  of  a  per- 
sonal conviction.  ' 

In  what  other  nation  has  honest  ambition  so  wide  a  range,  and 
merit  so  certain  and  so  brilliant  a  reward  ?     Where  else,  in  the  civ- 


ilized  world,  call  a  virtuous  education  be  bo  surely  ohiaiucil ,  and 
lead  to  results  of  such  transcendant  worth  ? 

A  distinguished  iUustration  of  this  truth  we  have  present  in  our 
own  companionship  to-day.  The  youth,  whom  some  of  us  re- 
member as  a  student  of  Chapel  Hill  in  the  class  of  1818,  whose 
feeble  health  had  threatened  to  quench  his  ardent  thirst  of  know- 
ledge, returns  to  us  now,  the  occupant  of  the  higiiest  political  si  a 
tion  which  is  known  on  earth.  We  recognise  here  no  distinctions 
of  artificial  rank;  no  claims  of  lineage;  no  assumptions  of  wealth; 
but  we  acknowledge  that  the  honors  conferred  upon  our  brother-in- 
letters  are  reflected  back  upon  our  University  and  ourselves,  and 
we  recognise  them  as  the  fruit  of  wise  instruction,  and  as  incent- 
ives to  efforts  in  others,  to  whom  opportunities  are  ofiTered,  more 
favorable,  even,  than  were  his.  We  greet  him  on  this  auspicious 
occasion,  not  alone  as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Republic,  but  in 
a  more  near  and  friendly  relation,  as  our  ancient  associate  in  study, 
and  a  graduate,  with  ns,  of  the  same  honored  institution.  Here, 
where  in  the  bright  morning  of  life  he  laid,  in  virtue,  in  industry, 
and  in  science,  the  deep  foundations  of  his  subsequent  success,  he 
comes  back  with  us,  to  pay  the  sincere  homage  of  gratitude  for 
those  early  privileges  to  which  he  owes  so  much,  and  which  he  can 
now,  more  than  ever,  value  as  they  deserve.  In  his  recollection, 
as  in  the  memory  of  us  all,  this  ancient  place  yet  glows  with  its  old 
attractions,  and  our  affections  fondly  turn  to  it,  amid  the  wander- 
ings of  earth,  with  something  of  youthful  ardor,  as  well  as  of  filial 
respect.     However  in  other  scenes  and  less  tranquil  pursuits, 

" the  ear  is  all  unstrung, 


"  Still,  still,  it  loves  tlie  lowland  tongue." 

But  time,  which  matures  and  ripens,  also  destroys;  and  as  our 
eyes  wander  over  this  assembly,  we  mourn  the  absence  of  many 
a  familiar  countenance  and  many  a  beloved  form.     While  we  ac- 


8 

knowledge  new  and  welcome  accessions  to  our  number  from  the 
vouthful  graduates  of  the  year,  we  are  compelled  to  remember  thai 
iliey  occupy  the  seats  of  earlier  companions,  who  have  been  swept 
away  in  the  lapse  of  years,  and  who  repose  now  in  the  silent  sha- 
dows of  the  grave.  To  those  of  us  who  were  together  here  thirty 
years  ago,  "  ra7'i  nantes  in  gvrgite  vasto,^^  these  mournful  recol- 
lections come  home  with  peculiar  power.  Like  dim  voices  of  the 
(lead,  they  speak  to  us  from  the  chair  of  the  instructor  as  well  as 
from  (he  bench  of  the  pupil. 

"  Now  kindred  merit  fills  the  sable  bier  ; 

Now  lacerated  friendship  claims  a  tear  ; 

Year  chases  year ;  decay  pursues  decay ; 

Still  drops  some  joy  from  withering  life  away."  ,    ,      „  .  .' 

And  here  I  should  do  injustice  to  the  occasion  and  to  my  own 
feelings  if  I  did  not  pursue  this  painful  theme  for  a  moment,  to  pay 
the  tribute  of  my  affectionate  regard  to  the  memory  of  him  who 
for  so  many  years,  often  under  most  adverse  circumstances, 
but  still  with  signal  success,  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Uni- 
versity as  its  presiding  officer.  No  one,  I  am  sure,  who  has  ever 
shared  his  counsels  or  profited  by  his  mild  reproofs,  can  easily  for- 
get the  wisdom  and  the  virtues  of  President  Caldwell.  Uniting 
extended  learning  with  sound  judgment,  he  possessed  the  rare  and 
difficult  art  to  temper  admonition  Vv^ith  kindness,  and  to  render  dis- 
cipline more  effectual  by  making  it  less  repulsive. 

"  His  life  was  gentle  ;  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
\  And  say  to  all  the  world, 'this  was  a  man.' " 

His  character  and  his  usefulness — what  he  was,  and  what  he 
was  enabled  to  do — suggest  a  theme,  which  in  this  theatre  of  his 
labors,  and  among  these  witnesses  of  his  fame,  it  would  be  a  grate- 
ful task  under  other  circumstances  to  pursue.     But  his  own  exam- 


9 

pie  would  rebuke  us,  if  we  ahould  allow  even  his  merits  lo  (urn 
us  aside  from  contemplating  the  great  objects  of  his  toil,  liet  ns 
seek  rather  to  understand  and  to  do  homage  to  those  vast  interests 
of  enlightened  culture  in  our  own  country,  which  he  lived,  and  ,  I 
had  almost  said,  he  died  to  promote. 

To  this  general  subject  we  are  invited,  not  only  by  the  proprie- 
ties of  the  occasion,  but  by  its  own  intrinsic  dignity  and  worth. 
In  its  broad  and  comprehensive  sense,  the  work  of  education  is  llie 
grand  business  of  human  life;  and  in  these  United  States,  I  need 
hardly  say,  it  can  never  be  neglected,  but  at  the  hazard  of  conse- 
•quences  which  no  patriot  can  contemplate  without  alarm. 

This  belief  was  present  with  America  at  its  very  birth,  and 
stamped  upon  its  rising  institutions  the  great  impress  of  freedom 
and  perpetuity.  In  the  history  of  other  nations,  learning  has  been 
the  slow  growth  of  a  society  already  formed,  and  has  existed,  at  last, 
only  as  the  ornament  of  wealth  or  the  champion  of  power.  But 
with  the  Fathers  of  our  Republic,  next  to  religion,  it  was  the  first 
thing  thought  of;  not  as  a  luxury,  but  as  a  necessity;  not  as  the 
handmaid  of  privilege,  but  as  the  nurse  of  equality;  not  as  the 
child  of  endowment  or  the  accident  of  place,  but  as  the  surest  basis 
of  pubhc  prosperity  and  of  private  happiness.  They  planted  know- 
ledge, therefore,  in  the  wilderness;  established  schools  as  soon  as 
they  builded  habitations;  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a  University, 
while  yet  they  were  struggling  with  the  ravages  of  disease  and  the 
apprehension  of  want.  More  than  a  century  ago  the  charter  gov- 
ernments were  celebrated  for  "promoting  letters  by  free  schools 
and  colleges" — and  to  this  feature  of  their  character  has  been 
traced  the  secret  of  their  great  success.  ''Every  child  born  into  the 
world  was  Ufted  from  the  earth  by  the  genius  of  its  country,  and 
in  the  statutes  of  the  land  received,  as  its  political  birthright,  a 
pledge  of  the  public  care  for  its  morals  and  its  mind." 

It  has  been  taid  that,  under  a  Government  like  ours,  whatever  is 


10 

gained  in  politics  is  lost  in  learning,  and  that  a  nation  becomes  less 
truly  intelligent  by  becoming  more  thoroughly  Republican.  Yet 
no  country  has  done  so  much  for  learning  in  so  short  a  time  as 
America.  Unexampled  as  has  been  its  growth  in  all  the  elements 
of  physical  power,  its  means  of  education  have  multiplied  with  its 
advancing  population,  and  gone  hand  in  hand  with  its  increasing 
wealth.  When  this  institution  was  founded  in  1789  it  had  not 
more  than  ten  associate  colleges  in  the  whole  Union;  and  many 
of  these,  in  every  thing  but  the  name,  were  hardly  on  a  level  with 
our  modern  academies.  There  are  now  in  the  United  States  at 
least  ten  times  that  number,  with  an  aggregate  of  nearly  eighf 
hundred  instructors,  an  attendance  of  twelve  thousand  students, 
and  a  library  of  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  volumes.  Inde- 
pendent of  these,  but  laboring  in  the  same  field  of  usefulness,  are 
thirty-four  schools  of  theology,  thirty-two  of  medicine,  and  eight 
of  law,  all  of  them  in  successful  operation,  and  some  of  them  mu- 
nificently provided  with  the  most  costly  apparatus  and  most  valu- 
able works.  The  true  glory,  however,  of  republican  culture  is 
found  in  those  less  ambitious  nurseries  of  learning  which,  scattered 
broadcast  over  the  Union,  extend  the  opportunities  of  free  in- 
struction to  almost  every  fiimily  in  America.  From  the  imperfect 
returns  of  many  of  the  Slates,  and  the  different  systems  adopted 
in  various  sections  for  accomplishing  the  same  end,  an  accurate 
summary  on  this  subject  cannot  well  be  obtained.  Five  years 
ago  it  was  estimated  that,  in  the  whole  country,  there  were  not 
less  than  two  millions  of  pupils,  who  attended  common  schools; 
but  a  better  idea  of  their  extent  and  influence  may  be  gathered 
from  the  statistics  of  a  single  State.  In  New  York,  tliere  are 
nearly  eleven  thousand  public  schools;  not  less  than  half  a  million 
of  pupils;  and  district  libraries  for  the  use  alike  of  children  and 
adults,  comprising"  in  the  aggregate  more  than  a  million  of  vol- 
•:«mes.     In  that  Slate.    I   am  aware,   the    'xhool  system  has  been 


11 

tlie  work  of  many  years;  but  even  ihe  system  of  Ohio,  one  ol 
the  youngest  States  ill  the  Union,  may  well  attract  our  astonish- 
ment and  respect.  Here,  if  any  where  in  the  land ,  considering 
her  late  existence  and  marvellous  growth,  we  might  have  looked 
to  see  the  cultivation  of  mind  fatally  postponed,  if  not  vvlujlly 
overwhelmed  by  the  thronging  demands  of  enierjirise,  and  the 
pressing  employments  of  active  life.  Yet  her  constitution  de- 
clares, in  the  genuine  spirit  of  the  Republic,  "  thai  knowledge  is 
essential  to  good  government  and  human  happiness,"  and  that 
"  schools  and  means  of  instruction  should  be  encouraged  in  such 
a  way,  as  is  consistent  with  freedom  of  conscience."  Acting  on 
the  admirable  sentiment  of  this  provision,  she  had  established, 
as  long  ago  as  1S40,  eighteen  colleges  and  nearly  six  tliousand 
schools,  which  were  attended  b}^  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand  scholars. 

These  illustrations  evince,  at  a  single  glance,  the  extended  in- 
terest of  our  people  in  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  the  mag- 
nificent results  whicii  that  patriotic  interest  has  achieved.  If  some 
States  have  done  less  than  Ohio  for  the  cause  of  instruction, 
there  are  others  which  have  done  more— and  all  of  them ,  I  be 
lieve  without  exception,  have  recognised  its  importance  by  wise 
constitutional  or  legal  provisions.  The  public  funds  set  apart  for 
this  purpose  in  the  whole  Union,  including  tiie  generous  grants  of 
land  by  (he  Federal  Government,  to  promote  the  sales  of  its  pub- 
lic domain,  need  not  shrink  from  comparison  with  the  boasted 
literary  endowments  of  Europe;  and  yet  they  fall  very  far  short  of 
the  entire  expenditure  in  the  United  States  for  the  education  of  the 
young.  The  cost  of  private  instruction  forms  of  itself  an  ad- 
ditional item  of  immense  amount,  while  the  grand  aggregate  is 
still  further  increased  by  the  frequent  contributions  of  individual 
beneficence,  for  the  foundation  of  libraries,  or  the  improvement  of 
schools.     In  the  field  of  letters,  as   every  where  else  in  our  coun- 


12 

try,  the  great  principle  of  voluntary  effort  is  ceaselessly  at  work, 
and  constantly  rivals,  by  the  energy  of  its  movements  and  the 
magnitude  of  its  effects,  the  most  successful  action  on  the  part  of 
Government.  The  exercise  of  their  combined  power  has  pervad- 
ed the  very  heart  of  the  people  with  the  influences  of  moral 
and  mental  culture,  and  has  extended  the  means  of  education  to 
every  grade  of  society  and  every  condition  of  life. 

Aided,  however,  by  no  combination  with  the  State,  the  reli- 
gious teachings  of  America  are  the  work  purely  of  private  bene- 
ficence. In  the  republics  of  antiquity,  religion  was  only  a  part  of 
their  political  system,  and  the  head  of  the  State  was  also  the  fa- 
ther of  the  church.  This  unnatural  connexion,  fatal  alike  to 
Christianity  and  to  liberty,  which  even  yet  lingers  in  the  Old 
World,  has  been  wholly  repudiated  in  the  New — and  the  land  of 
Roger  Williams  and  Thomas  Jefferson  proclaims  liberty  of  con- 
science from  sixty  thousand  churches,  and  inculcates  virtue  and 
toleration  in  as  many  Sabbath  schools.  Free  government  is  valu- 
able, after  all,  not  so  much  for  any  direct  exertion  of  its  own 
power,  as  for  what  it  permits  the  people  to  work  out  for  them- 
selves. •        . 

The  Press  began  its  work  in  1639  :  a  century  afterwards  it  had 
earned  the  prohibition  of  England,  and  was  strong  enough  to  defy 
it  ;  and  at  this  day,  it  asserts  its  freedom  by  an  influence  which  is 
only  not  despotic  because  it  is  not  harmonious.  Far  outstripping 
by  its  enterprise  the  fertility  of  our  own  writers,  the  American 
press  appropriates  unshrinkingly  the  literary  treasures  of  the  whole 
earth  ;  whil.e  it  almost  forbids  miportation  of  books  by  the  cheap- 
ness with  which  it  reprints  them,  and  the  facility  with  which  it 
scatters  them  among  all  classes  of  the  reading  community.  But  ' 
the  most  striking  displays  of  its  activity  and  power  are  only  to  be 
witnessed  in  the  field  of  Journalism,  where  it  more  than  equals 
France  in  energy,  and  knows  no  other  rival  throughout  the  world. 


It  printed  the  first  newspaper  in  America  in  tlie  year  1704  ;  in 
1828  it  had  joined  an  additional  number  of  eight  lumdred  and 
fifty  ;  and,  at  this  day,  it  acts  upon  the  popular  mind  through  the 
teeming  columns  of  more  than  two  thousand  journals.  Sharing, 
as  well  as  stimulating,  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  age,  it  advances 
into  the  wilderness  with  our  hardy  pioneers  ;  keeps  company  with 
our  commerce  among  the  islands  of  the  sea  ;  and  contends  for 
supremacy  with  the  sword  upon  every  battle-field  which  is  won 
by  our  victorious  arms.  Already  it  sends  us  shipping  lists  from 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  chronicles  the  news  of  the  day  in  La  Vera 
Cruz,  and  echoes  back  the  thunder  of  our  cannon  from  the  shores 
of  the  far  Pacific.  Becoming  thus  the  missionary  as  well  as  the 
schoolmaster  of  republicanism ,  it  plants  among  other  nations  the 
seeds  of  freedom,  which  it  has  itself  ripened  upon  our  soil  ;  and 
having  first  contributed  to  the  glory  of  America  at  home,  it  crowns 
its  labor  of  patriotism  by  making  it  better  known ,  and  therefore 
more  honored,  abroad. 

With  influences  such  as  these,  it  more  than  pays  back  to  our 
country  whatever  of  nurture  it  has  received  from  it,  and  richly 
atones  for  all  the  imperfections  or  abuses  by  which  it  so  often  de- 
serves the  reproaches  of  society,  and  sometimes  seems,  almost,  to 
require  the  censorship  of  law.  The  force  of  enlightened  public 
opinion  constitutes,  after  all,  its  best  restraint,  and  the  only  one 
which  would  leave  to  it  all  its  value.  Under  this  guidance,  if  its 
teachings  are  not  always  pure,  they  are  seldom  dangerous  ;  for  its 
errors  are  met  by  truth  as  soon  as  they  appear,  and,  like  the  lance 
of  Achilles,  it  has  the  virtue  to  heal  the  wounds  which  it  has  itself 
inflicted.  In  the  higher  branches  of  literature,  the  good  which  it 
confers  is  never  doubted  ;  and  if  it  is  less  free  from  censure  in  its 
lighter  publications,  yet  its  agency  even  there  is  on  the  side  of  vir- 
tue and  in  favor  of  liberty.  "  Were  it  left  to  me  to  decide,'* 
writes  Mr.  Jefferson,/^  whether  we  should  have  a  governmenl 


14 

without  newspapers,  or  newspapers  without  government,  I  would 
not  hesitate  a  moment  to  prefer  the  latter."  Paradoxical  aa 
this  may  seem,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  no  government  can 
be  maintained  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  purity,  without  the 
chastening  influences  of  the  newspaper  press. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  a  rich  source  of  instruction  is  closed  to 
us,  because  America  has  no  monuments  ;  and  if  by  this  it  is 
meant  that  she  is  not  yet  marked  with  the  decay  of  age  and  the 
ravages  of  time,  the  assertion  is  strictly  true.  But  unless  ruin  is 
more  desirable  than  greatness,  and  the  dim  figures  of  antiquity 
more  precious  than  the  fresh  and  glowing  forms  of  youth,  this 
feature  of  her  character  is  rather  her  glory  than  her  reproach. 
The  monuments  of  America  are  not  found  in  the  scattered  frag- 
ments of  the  dusty  past,  but  point  all  of  them  to  the  rising  gran- 
deurs of  the  far-ofT  future  ;  and  while  older  nations  "  look  back 
through  the  twilight  of  ages  that  lose  theiiiselves  in  night,"  the 
genius  of  our  Republic  goes  forth  in  the  dawn  of  morning,  to  meet 
and  welcome  the  approach  of  day.  No  feudal  castles,  crumbling 
upon  our  hills,  attest  the  ancient  violence  of  robber-lords,  and  not 
for  us,  do  the  glorious  relics  of  a  noble  ancestry  bear  witness,  in 
buried  columns  and  broken  arches,  to  the  degenerate  spirits  of  their 
unworthy  sons  ;  but  in  place  of  these,  and  far  better  than  these, 
we  crown  our  landscapes  with  contented  homes,  we  build  altars 
to  science  by  the  hearthstone  of  every  citizen,  and  with  the  spires 
of  thousands  of  churches  we  point  our  children  the  path  to  Heaven . 
While  we  can  preserve,  unimpaired  to  our  country, /ree  instruc- 
tion, free  religio7i,  and  a  free  press ,  we  need  ask  no  other  support 
for  our  institutions,  and  no  other  witnesses  to  our  fame. 

To  the  means  of  instruction  which  have  been  already  mentioned, 
I  should  do  wrong  not  to  add  that  other  and  peculiar  education 
which  springs  from  the  very  working  of  our  republican  system ,  and 
from  which  no  member  of  the  community  can  well  escape,  even 


la 

if  he  would.  Under  our  policy, every  citizen  ia  a  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  some  of  its  most  important  duties  are  periodically 
devolved  upon  him,  both  by  huv  and  by  necessity.  He  wields  the 
power  of  the  elective  franchise ,  and  determines  by  his  vote  the  choice 
alike  of  measures  and  of  men;  not  only  ivJio  shall  rule  him,  but 
what  shall  rule  him;  he  sits  in  the  jury  box,  and  the  fortune,  the 
fame,  nay,  the  very  life  of  his  neighbor,  rest  upon  his  decision;  he 
is  called  as  a  witness,  and  is  sworn  to  give  true  testimony  on  ques- 
tions involving  the  deepest  interests  and  the  most  important  results; 
or,  by  the  suffrages  of  his  fellow  citizens,  he  is  clothed  with  still 
greater  trusts,  and  assumes  responsibilities  which  belong  only  to 
the  highest  stations  in  the  gift  of  the  people.  A  sovereign  in  his 
own  right,  the  symbols  of  his  authority  are  thus  constantly  before 
his  eyes,  and  from  every  new  exercise  of  his  power,  the  American 
citizen  derives  fresh  excitement  to  his  intellect,  and  increased  dig- 
nity to  his  character.  In  all  his  public  acts  the  double  motive 
presses  upon  him  to  ensure  reward  and  to  avoid  disgrace.  Under 
a  free  government,  he  knows  full  well  that,  with  intelligence  and 
fidelity,  there  are  no  plaudits  which  he  may  not  win,  and  no  prizes 
of  ambition  which  are  above  his  reach;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
no  where  else  is  corruption  so  inexcusable,  and  ignorance  so  wholly 
out  of  place.  In  other  countries,  where  passive  obedience  is  the 
fruit  of  despotism,  a  stolid  people  is  the  natural  accompaniment  of 
an  educated  prince;  but  the  genius  of  our  institutions  contemplates 
no  such  thing  as  an  ignorant  man,  and  deems  itself  defrauded  of 
its  just  claims  when  it  finds  a  citizen  faithless  to  his  duty.  The 
large  requirements,  therefore,  of  American  politics,  which  are  with 
superficial  observers  the  subject  of  hasty  regret,  constitute  in  reality 
one  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  our  republican  system,  a  most 
affluent  source  of  ennobling  instruction,  and  tend,  with  inevitable 
certainty,  not  only  to  increase  the  popular  intelligence,  but  to  give 
energy,  expansion,  and  elevation  to  the  popular  mind.     Tran- 


16 

quility  and  the  repose  of  exclusive  devotion  to  personal  pursuits 
are  not  the  most  favorable  elements  either  for  great  conceptions  or 
distinguished  action.  The  highest  heroism,  on  the  contrary,  springs 
from  the  strongest  excitements;  and  the  period  of  revolution  is  also 
the  period  of  awakened  genius.  The  same  causes  which  break 
up  ancient  abuses  in  society, break  up,  with  equal  efficacy, old  ab- 
surdities in  science  and  in  art;  and  from  the  still-heaving  waves  of 
tumult  and  reform,  emerge  side  by  side  the  warrior,  the  statesman, 
the  orator,  and  the  poet.  The  sublime  productions  of  Milton  had 
their  birth  in  the  same  times  which  produced  the  stormy  charac- 
ter of  Oliver  Cromwell;  and  the  harsh,  passionate  voice  of  the 
one  comes  softened  to  our  ears  by  the  lofty  melody  of  the  other. 
Amid  the  fierce  passions  and  new  found  energies  of  revolution- 
ary France,  Mirabeau  and  Robespierre  announced  together  the 
rising  fortunes  of  the  ''  man  of  destiny."  And  after  convulsions, 
such  as  the  earth  has  rarely  seen ,  Napoleon  comes  upon  the  stage 
prepared  for  him,  and  writes  his  name  in  iron  characters,  not  only 
upon  the  history  of  Europe,  but  upon  the  very  forehead  of  the 
world.  The  experience  of  modern  times  is  confirmed  upon  this 
subject  by  all  the  lessons  of  antiquity.  The  home  of  freedom 
was  every  where  the  dwelling  place  of  letters,  and  we  read  the  ex- 
amples of  successful  genius,  not  among  the  subjects  of  despotic 
Babylon,  but  among  the  democracy  of  Athens.  There  was  no 
literary  fame,  even  in  Greece,  until  the  era  opened  of  her  repub- 
lican principles;  but  Mew  she  became  the  matchless  land  of  civili- 
zation and  refinement.  ■.       •  •  ••    . 

"  "Where  science  struck  the  thrones  of  earth  and  heaven, 
Which  shook  but  fell  not;  and  the  harmonious  mind  <.  ■    . 

Poured  itself  forth  in  all  prophetic  song, 
■•       And  musiclifted  up  the  listening  spirit, 
Until  it  walked,  exempt  from  mortal  care, 
Godlike, o'er  the  clear  billows  of  sweet  sound, 


17 

And  hvinian  i-.aiids  lirsl  mimicked,  and  then  mocked 
With  moulded  limbs,  more  lovely  than  lis  own, 
The  human  form,  till  marlilc  grew  divine." 

And  (he  literature  of  Greece  riiust  prove  forever  tljc  kiiidlini^  in- 
fluences of  Grecian  liberty. 

But  as  no  people  can  continue  indefinitely  in  a  slate  of  revolii- 
t,ion,  these  excitations  of  the  popular  inind  in  other  ages  and  other 
countries,  always  producing  the  same'noble  fruits,  have,  after  u 
brief  and  brilliant  reign,  been  as  invariably  followed  by  tiie  paral- 
izing  torpor  of  despotism.  It  v^as  reserved  for  our  happy  coun- 
try to  devise  a  system,  our  own  incomparable  federative  system, 
which,  with  the  liberalizing  influences  of  the  Christian  religion  in 
freedom  and  in  purity,  is  constantly  instructing  and  stimulating 
the  popular  mind,  and  developing  all  the  energies  of  our  nature. 
It  is  a  problem  successfully  worked  out,  which  justly  commands 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  equally  auspicious  to  literature  and  to 
liberty,  and  promises  blessings  to  mankind,  which  the  human  im- 
agination can  hardly  conceive.  "At  this  moment,  the  disastrous 
and  ominous  condition  of  Europe,  which  men  of  philosophical  en- 
quiry and  reflection  begin  to  ascribe  to  inveterate,  radical,  and  per- 
manent evils  of  political  and  social  systems,  but  renders  more  vivid 
and  dazzling  the  bright  aspects  of  our  manifold  prosperity."  But 
this  is  not  the  occasion  to  pursue  this  train  of  thought. 

Devoted  in  patriotism ,  and  ever  ready  to  act  on  the  noble  prin- 
ciple— salus  Reipublicoi  suprenia  lex — our  countrymen  have  yet 
neglected  nothing  which  was  calculated  to  adorn  domestic  life  and 
promote  individual  happiness.  Female  education  has,  therefore, 
always  been  a  subject  of  primary  attention. 

Elevated  to  her  appropriate  position  in  society;  adorned,  refined, 

and  accomplished   by  careful  instruction,  the  Atnerican  woman  is 

the  happy   companion  of  the  Ainerican  freeman;  gladdening  his 

heart  by  her  smile  of  confidence  and  love,  and   cheering  him  in 

3 


18 

Ins  preat  career  of  public  duty,  by  her  voice  of  counsel  and  appro- 
bation . 

Glorious  as  our  institutions  are,  their  fruit  would  have  turned  to 
ashes,  without  the  lovely  association  of  the  softer  sex,  fitted  by 
education  to  be  the  friend,  the  joy,  the  pride  of  American  patriots. 

If  our  country ,  from  the  very  nature  of  its  Government,  demands 
much  of  its  citizens,  let  us  remember  that  it  makes  them  capable 
of  doing-  much;  and  that,  by  giving  to  them  the  stinmlus  and 
nurture  of  free  institutions,  it  places  within  the  reach,  even  of  the 
most  humble,  the  highest  attainments  of  learning  and  the  noblest 
achievements  of  mind. 

The  value  of  this  nurture  and  of  this  stimulus  is  best  attested  by 
the  great  results  which  they  have  already  accomplished;  and  thus 
measured  by  the  standard  of  results,  our  whole  Republic  is  but  a 
monument  to  their  praise.  Under  their  influence,  constantly  cher- 
ished and  constantly  in  turn  exerted,  it  has  not  only  maintained 
successfully  its  freedom  and  its  power,  but  it  has  pursued  a  career 
of  progress  and  improvement,  which  is  without  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Fifty-eight  years  ago  it  elected  its  first  Pres- 
ident. It  then  embraced  a  population  of  little  more  than  three 
millions,  occupying  thirteen  States,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  cov- 
ering an  area  of  less  than  five  hundred  thousand  square  miles. 
Its  population  has  now  swelled  to  more  than  twenty  millions,  and 
it  has  added  nearly  a  million  of  square  miles  to  its  represented  ter- 
ritory. It  has  more  than  doubled  the  number  of  States,  and  new 
sovereignties  still  form  themselves  in  the  wilderness  to  claim  its 
confederate  honors.  With  this  astonishing  increase  of  its  numbers 
and  of  its  peopled  and  cultivated  territory,  has  grown  up,  also  in  a 
ratio  equally  rapid,  every  important  interest  which  can  possibly  add 
either  to  national  wealth  or  national  glory.  In  agriculture,  it  has 
invented  new  implements  of  industry,  and  applied  them  to  fresh 
fields  of  toil;  and  from  the  rich  abundance  of  its  gathered  harvests. 


19 

it  not  only  fills  eacli  avenue  of  want  at  home,  but  freiti^hts  its  ^Uiw 
ships  with  a  people's  tribute  to  the  faiiiiue-ritricken  children  of  kiti£^- 
donis  abroad.  In  con)merre,it  whitens  the  very  ocean  with  its 
enterprise,  and  exchang^es  products  with  every  climate  under  the 
sun;  while  in  the  rapid  advancement  of  its  manufactures,  it  bids 
fair,  at  no  distant  day,  to  rival  even  liie  skill  of  En«[lish  industry, 
and  to  transfer  to  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  the  '-workshop  uf  the 
world." 

Pursuing  with  boundless,  because  unfettered,  zeal  each  ojiening 
oi foreign  traffic,  it  at  the  same  lime  unites  its  own  territory  bv  con 
stantly  extending  and  improving  its  means  of  hiternal  intercourse 
and  trade.  The  reniotestinhabitantof  the  Confederacy  is  not  beyond 
the  reach  of  its  post  office,  and  its  civilization  travels  not  only  with 
the  marvellous  power  of  wind  and  steam ,  but  with  the  speed  of  elec- 
tricity, subdued  by  the  art  of  man,  along  the  lines  of  its  Magnetic 
Telegraph . 

Scarcely  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  it  was  without  a  sino'le  mile 
of  railroad;  in  1836,  iis  iron  engines  traversed  a  completed  track  of 
sixteen  hundred  miles,  and  it  has  now  more  miles  of  railroad  than, 
in  the  time  of  Washington,  it  had  of  post  routes.  In  proportion 
to  its  population,  it  has  more  than  three  times  as  many  canals  as 
England,  and  more  than  four  times  as  many  as  France;  and  the 
canal  connecting  the  Hudson  with  the  Lakes,  is  the  longest  of  these 
artificial  rivers  which  has  been  constructed  in  the  world. 

In  the  year  1807,  Robert  Fulton  attracted  ridicule  by  building 
its  first  steamboat,  and  ten  years  after,  it  had  no  regular  line  of 
steamboats  in  all  its  western  waters.  They  now  crowd  in  hun- 
dreds upon  its  ocean  rivers  and  its  inland  seas,  gathering  the  rich 
products  of  the  most  remote  and  land-locked  regions  of  our  country, 
and  pouring  them  into  the  lap  of  commerce;  they  defy  every  form 
of  danger  upon  its  Atlantic  coast;  they  keep  company  with  its  na- 
vy against  the  northers  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and ,  under  the  foster- 


ing  care  of  Congress,  they  will  soon  cross  the  Ocean  with  its  mails ;. 
and  nnnister  to  fhe  wants  of  our  ships  of  war^  and  protect  our 
merchant  marine  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  A  single  one  of 
its  Western  States  possesses  more  steamboats  than  the  whole  king- 
dom of  France,  and  there  are  said  to  be  as  many  steamers  on  Lake 
Erie  as  in  the  Mediterranean  sea. 

Its  increasing  means  of  communication  thus  keep  pace  with  its 
extending  settlemenis,  and  its  whole  Union  is  bound  together  in 
the  strong  embraces  of  mutual  intercourse,  mutual  knowledge,  and 
mutual  interest.  In  this  way  it  administers  with  facility  one  Gov- 
ernment for  twenty-eight  sovereignties,  and  from  a  single  central 
heart  diffuses  the  healthy  life-blood  of  law  and  justice  through  all 
portions  of  the  body  politic.  Yet,  with  us,  Paris  is  not  France, 
and  that  heart  would  soon  become  corrupt,  and  the  stream  of  sani- 
tary circulation  torpid,  but  for  the  purifying  application  of  the 
Federative  principle,  and  the  chastening  and  correcting  influences 
of  the  subdivisions  of  power  amongst  the  States  and  the  people,  to 
whom  so  large  a  share  in  the  duty  of  self-government  is  wisely 
.confided. 

The  same  influences,  too,  which  have  thus  developed,  with 
almost  startling  rapidity,  the  various  sources  of  its  physical  pow- 
er, have  adorned  it  at  the  same  time  with  cheering  monuments  of 
its  active  benevolence,  its  scientific  ingenuity,  and  its  improving 
taste.  Its  charities  partake,  at  once,  of  the  vigor  of  its  enterprise 
and  the  abundance  of  its  means,  and  no  worthy  object  ever  yet 
appealed  to  it  in  vain.  Shrewd  and  unyielding  as  it  doubtless  is 
in  the  concerns  of  trade,  it  is  characterized  by  the  warmest  sym- 
pathy for  human  suffering,  and  the  most  generous  disposition  to 
give  it  adequate  relief.  Its  capacious  heart,  sharing  something  of 
its  broad  nationality,  has  gathered  around  it  none  of  the  iron  of 
avarice  or  the  numbness  of  exhausted  feeling,  but  never  fails  to  re- 
spond  with    warmth  and  feeling  to  the  voice  of  misfortune,  no 


21 

matter  from  wliat  clime  il  comes,  or  what  disaster  may  have  pro- 
duced it.  In  our  own  country  it  attests  the  magnitude  of  its  bene- 
ficence by  its  charitable  institutions,  which  attract  respect,  not  only 
on  account  of  the  purposes  to  which  they  are  devoted,  but  from 
their  elegant  construction  and  convenient  arrangements.  Its  care 
of  its  poor  has  been  censured  by  foreign  writers  as  so  extravagant 
as  to  invite  pauperism;  and  with  equal  bounty  it  embraces  in  its 
ministrations  the  aged  and  the  sick,  t'le  deaf  and  the  dumb,  the 
blind  and  the  lunatic.  These  institulions,  so  numerous  and  so 
well  adapted  to  their  ends,  excite  our  admiration,  not  so  much 
at  their  number,  as  that  in  so  new  a  country  time  has  been  found 
to  establish  them.  Firm  in  the  maintenance  of  law,  it§  system  of 
punishments  is  characterized  by  christian  benevolence,  and  the 
pecuniary  fines  imposed  on  numerous  classes  of  crimes  are  devoted 
to  the  promotion  of  education — beautifully  taxing  vice  to  support 
virtue. 

If  America  has  not  yet  equalled  older  nations  by  her  advances 
in  literature  and  art,  she  has  at  least  laid  a  firm  foundation  for  them; 
and  bright  examples  of  generous  attainment  and  lofty  intellect  are 
not  even  now  wanting  among  her  cultivated  citizens.  Her  states- 
manship has  been  proved  in  the  strictest  school  of  diplomacy;  and 
her  pubhc  speaking,  in  true  eloquence,  will  not  suffer  from  com- 
parison with  that  of  any  other  country.  In  history,  in  painting, 
and  in  sculpture,  m  poetry,  in  the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit,  in  the 
severe  reasoning  of  the  bench,  and  in  the  imposing  diction  of  Sen- 
atorial elocution,  our  country  has  produced  successful  competitors 
for  a  companionship  with  the  most  gifted  sons  of  genius  in  other 
regions  of  the  woild.  . 

But,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  its  literature  and  its  taste,  its 
contributions  to  science  and  to  mechanics  can  never  be  regarded  as 
deficient,  either  in  number  or  in  value.  Its  discoveries  in  electri- 
city, in  galvanism,  and  in  the  application  of  steam,  are  as  brilliant 


_      :J- 


22 

in  theory  as  tliey  are  useful  in  results,  and  thousands  of  models  in 
our  Patent  office  bear  witness  tliat  the  genius  which  invented  the 
cotton  gin,  and  new  moulded  the  commerce  of  the  world,  is  still  rife 
among  the  countrymen  of  Eli  Whitney.  In  mathematics,  in  min- 
eralogy, in  geology,  and  in  chemistry,  the  profound  researches  of 
our  countrymen  have  added  to  the  national  character,  and  increased 
the  means  of  social  happiness. 

Trammelled  by  no  fetters  of  ignorance  oi  superstition,  the  Amer- 
ican child  of  genius  "comes  forth  with  freedom  into  the  glowing 
sunlight  of  philosophy,  as  the  servant  and  interpreter  of  nature;  he 
looks  abroad  into  the  rich  and  magnificent  universe,  calls  the  de- 
lightful scenery  all  his  own — the  mountains,  the  valleys,  the  ocean, 
the  rivers,  and  the  sky;  through  these  wide  bounds  he  is  free  at  will 
to  choose —  .    . 

Whate'er  bright  spoils  the  florid  earth  contains, 
Whate'er  the  water  or  the  ambient  air. 

All  present  him  with  perfect  instances  of  the  consummate  wisdom  of 
the  Almighty  God,  who  created  a  world  so  fraught  with  beauty; 
and  by  their  examination  he  gains  materials,  which  not  only  en- 
lighten and  adorn,  but  exalt  and  purify  his  mind,  teaching  him  to 
appreciate  the  miraculous  workings  of  an  omnipotent  and  eternal 
Power . " 

But  confederate  America,  after  all,  is  not  yet  a  century  old;  and 
it  is  unjust,  therefore,  to  measure  her  attainments  by  the  ripened 
knowledge  which  with  other  nations  has  been  the  accumulation  of 
centuries.  The  first  condition  of  progress  in  every  department  of 
learning  is  to  appreciate  its  value,  and  this  condition,  at  least,  she 
has  generously  fulfilled.  There  is  no  object  of  mental  improve- 
ment at  all  worthy  of  human  pursuit,  upon  which,  in  some  form 
or  other,  she  has  not  set  the  seal  of  her  approval;  and  her  elevation, 
it  should  be  remembered,  is  not  shown  by  the  bright  achievements 
of  an  isolated  class,  but  by  the  liberal  culture  of  a  whole  people. 


23 

Without  any  deductions  for  her  deficiencies,  she  has  done  eiiougn 
aheady  to  fix  the  gratitude  of  her  citizen?,  and  to  challenge  the 
admiration  of  the  world.  And  yet,  she  is  but  in  the  morning  of 
her  existence;  and  brilliant  as  now  is  her  star,  it  has  only  entered 
upon  the  radiant  career  which  it  is  destined  under  Providence  yet 
to  accomplish.  Her  population,  her  wealth,  her  intellect,  and  her 
power,  are  all  of  them  in  the  germ  only  of  their  first  development, 
and  are  pressing  forward  to  an  expansion,  whose  majestic  grandeur 
it  is  difficult  for  the  mind  to  realize.  When  we  consider  her 
sparseness  of  population,  her  vacant  territory,  her  favored  position, 
her  unrivalled  Government,  and  remember  the  momentum  which 
she  has  received  from  the  past,  and  the  increased  energy  which 
she  must  acquire  from  every  succeeding  step  of  her  onward  march, 
we  are  ready  to  believe  nothing  impossible  in  her  future  greatness. 

It  would  be  vain  to  expect  that  the  work  of  mere  human  hands, 
requiring  the  agency  of  human  means,  should  attain  successful 
results,  without  sometimes  exhibiting  the  imperfections  of  its  au- 
thors, and  the  infirmities  of  their  nature. 

In  the  progress  of  our  experiment  of  self-government,  we  have 
encountered  dangers  which  appeared  to  threaten  failure,  and  which 
were  exultingly  hailed  by  the  enemies  of  freedom  as  the  sure 
sign  that  our  Federal  Union,  the  prolific  source  of  all  our  bless- 
ings, would  prove  but  a  ''  rope  of  sand."  Through  these  dan- 
gers we  have  successfidly  passed.     Others  must  await  us. 

We  know 

"There  is  a  divinity  which  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough  hew  them  as  we  may," 

and  we  will  not  despair  of  the  Republic;  always  remembering 
that,  if  in  the  collisions  of  interest,  the  wickedness  of  fanaticism, 
or  the  frenzy  of  party,  we  recur  to  those  feelings  of  fraternal  af- 
fection, forbearance,  and  conciliation,  and  to  those  great  principles 


24 

of  justice  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  all,  which  animated  our  fa- 
thers, we  will  not  fail  to  secure  the  perpetuity  of  our  institutions. 

The  magnitude  of  our  country's  destiny  must  depend,  howev- 
er, under  Providence,  upon  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of  her  in- 
dividual citizens;  and  to  all  of  us,  therefore,  she  addresses  the  so- 
lemn appeal  of  patriotism  and  humanity.  While,  therefore,  we 
endeavor  to  appreciate  as  it  deserves  our  glorious  heritage  of  liher- 
ty  and  happiness,  let  us  also  appreciate  the  vast  responsibility  by 
which  it  is  accompanied  !  Living  under  the  only  free  government 
on  earth, upon  us  are  concentrated  the  dearest  political  hopes  of  man. 
Wherever  glitters  the  crown  of  despotism,  or  faintly  throbs  the 
heart  of  freedom — wherever  toil  goes  unrewarded,  or  human  right 
is  crushed  beneath  oppression — from  patriots  of  all  climes,  and  the 
oppressed  of  every  land — come  blended  to  our  ears,  voices  alike 
of  warning  and  entreaty;  all  invoking  us  to  be  faithful  to  our  holy 
trust,  and  to  preserve  it  sacredly  for  the  civil  redemption  of  the 
world.  The  voices  of  the  past  come  mingled  with  the  voices  of 
the  present,  and  amid  the  graves  of  fallen  empires,  and  the  splen- 
did ruins  of  departed  greatness,  we  gather  anew  the  soleinn  lesson 
of  individual  duty.  Let  us  receive  it  with  submission,  and  rev- 
erence, and  awe;  and  let  it  increase  the  warmth  of  our  patriotism, 
the  earnestness  of  our  virtue,  and  the  devotedness  of  our  toil.  If 
we  would  discharge  aright  the  duty  which  we  owe  to  our  country 
and  to  mankind, let  us  begin  by  discharging  aright  the  duty  which 
we  owe  ourselves. 

•'  This  above  all,  to  thine  own  self  be  true  ; 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 


